Puppet Pals (2006 film)
Puppet Pals is a 2006 American computer-animated comedy film, directed by Steve Martino and produced by David Silverman. The film was produced by Twentieth Century Fox Animation for 20th Century Fox, as well as the first entry in the Fox Animated Features canon. The film features the voices of Jesse McCartney, Amy Poehler, Sandra Bullock, Seth Rogen, Josh Peck, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Silverman, Zachary Gordon, Kevin James, Steve Carell, and Sarah Vowell. Puppet Pals premiered at the Mann Village Theater on June 12, 2006, and was released in the United States on June 23, 2006. It received universal acclaim from critics and was a box office success, grossing $635.6 million worldwide on its $92 million budget, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2006. Puppet Pals nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but it lost to Happy Feet. It also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay (for writers Jon Vitti, Mike Reiss, Dan Fogelman, and Joe Stillman) and Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Tom Myers, Gary Rydstrom and Doc Kane). The film's success helped spawn an expanded franchise, with four sequels—2009's Puppet Pals 2, 2012's Puppet Pals the Third, 2015's Puppet Pals: Collision Course, and 2018's Puppet Pals: Forever After—as well as a television series. Plot Alonzo, a 18-year old human boy who loves the solitude of his home, finds his life interrupted when a little boy named Lincoln Loud comes spewing out of the sink and decides to stay in his home. Alonzo schemes to get rid of Lincoln by luring him into a unknown portal, but is Lincoln is not fooled, instead throwing Alonzo into the portal in and sending him away into a town called ToonVille. He later finds a new home in ToonVille, but hours later, countless characters and creatures are exiled there by the toon-hating and vertically-challenged Rosie Storm. He brings along another human boy named Jose Maldonaldo, who is the only toon character willing to guide him to a weirdly-named team named the Puppet Pals. Meanwhile, Rosie tortures a Smiley named Steve for the location of the Puppet Pals. Her guards rush in with something she has been searching for: The Magic Ball. She asks the ball that his son, Rob Storm, wants to become the new king of ToonVille and wants to take over it, but is told that he is not even a king. To be one, he must marry a girl, so Rob resolves to marry Joy, an enterprising happy-go-lucky emotion. More coming soon! Cast * Jesse McCartney as Alonzo * Amy Poehler as Joy * Bill Melendez as Snoopy (archive recordings) * Josh Peck as Jose Maldonaldo * Sarah Silverman as Little Lily * Anne Hathaway as Princess Joanna * Seth Rogen as Matthew * Sandra Bullock as Rosie Storm * Sarah Vowell as Angelina * Dave Foley as Jeremy * Dan Castellaneta as The Magic Ball * Patrick Stewart as Mayor Mike * Zachary Gordon as Lincoln Loud * Jodi Benson as Wendy * Kevin James as Bob (one of Rosie Storm's henchman) * Steve Carell as Mike (one of Rosie Storm's henchman) * Jim Carrey as Steve Smiley * Jason Lee as Rob Storm, Rosie Storm's son Production Development David Silverman came up with the concept for Puppet Pals in 1998 during the production of 2003's Jose Maldonaldo. In the beginning of production, Silverman began work on the film with Steve Martino in 2000, shortly after the release of Titan A.E. By late 2000, Silverman had drafted a treatment with Martino that bore some resemblance to the final film. Silverman and Martino pitched the story to Twentieth Century Fox Animation with some initial artwork in January 2001. He and his story team left with some suggestions in hand and returned to pitch a refined version of the story in March. Although the film was solely directed by Steve Martino, Disney, Universal Animation, and Pixar artists came into the project and created the characters and story, which were given to Steve Martino. The film was originally developed under the title of Toons, but it was changed. In March 2002, following the success of Ice Age, announced that Steve Martino and David Silverman was working on a then-untitled project that would become Puppet Pals. In November 2002, Fox revealed the film's title to be Puppet Pals, then planned for a 2005 release. In addition, it would be animated with computer-animation, rather than traditional hand-drawn animation that had been done with Fox's previous films. Alaina Gleen ''creator Thalia Ward didn't like the name of the film, saying that it would be dumb and fearing that it would bomb at the box office. In March 2003, production of the film officially began, and David Silverman was brought in to produce the film. Kevin Lima, Thalia Ward, and Chris Wedge worked as creative consultants on the film. The film was later completed by December 2005. Casting Coming soon! Animation Coming soon! Music Main article: Puppet Pals (2006 film)/Soundtrack The film's original score was composed by Michael Giacchino and John Debney. The soundtrack album was released on June 16, 2006 by Varèse Sarabande. Reception Critical response Puppet Pals received widespread critical acclaim, becoming a cult hit among critics upon release. On the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 169 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Even if it's not an animation classic, Puppet Pals is clever and fun, and the jokes cater to family members of all ages." On Metacritic, it received a score of 76 out of 100, based on 73 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Box office Puppet Pals opened in 3,993 North American theaters on its opening weekend, grossing $39.8 million on its first day (Friday, June 23, 2006), which was the biggest Friday opening day in June. During its opening weekend, Puppet Pals earned $87.5 million from 3,993 theaters, which at the time set new records such as the highest opening for a Fox-animated film (later overtaken by ''Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs). This film opened at #1 at the box office on its opening weekend behind Click (2006). It fell 58.2% in its second weekend, grossing $49.4 million and finishing second behind newcomer Superman Returns. The film closed on December 14, 2006 after 24 weeks of release, grossing $280.2 million in the United States and Canada, along with $355.4 million overseas for a worldwide total of $635.6 million. The film sold an estimated 48,430,650 tickets in North America. The film was released in the United Kingdom three months later on September 15, 2006, and topped the country's box office for the next three weekends, before being dethroned by The Devil Wears Prada. 3D re-release Puppet Pals 3D was opened in 3,148 theaters on September 16, 2016, and made $25.2 million in its opening weekend, finishing in first place at the box office. The film closed on December 22, 2016, with a worldwide gross of $342.8 million. Unlike other countries, the U.K. and Argentina received the film in 3-D. Puppet Pals 3D was released on September 23, 2016 in the U.K., and November 3, 2016, in Argentina. Release The film premiered on June 4, 2006, at the Mann Village Theatre, Westwood in Los Angeles, and was released in the United States on June 23, 2006. In March 2005, IMAX decided to plan a big-screen 3D version of Puppet Pals. The film would have been re-released during the Christmas season of 2006, or the following summer, after its conventional 2D release. The re-release would have also included new sequences and an alternate ending. Plans for this was dropped due to "creative changes" instituted by Fox and resulted in a loss of $1.12 million, down from IMAX's profit of $4.11 million. However, on August 17, 2016, Fox and IMAX announced that Puppet Pals would be re-released on September 23, 2016 in IMAX 3D for a limited time, to honor the 10th anniversary of the franchise. The theatrical release was accompanied by Fox Animation's 2004 Academy Award-nominated short film The Mushies! A montage of "outtakes" were made and included in the end credits of the film starting on July 28, 2006, which was done because Fox hoped it would encourage people to view the film a second time. The film was originally scheduled for release on November 18, 2005, but on December 9, 2004, its release date was pushed back to June 23, 2006. The release date change was also the day before Gingo Animation changed the release date of BJ and Wally to December 2005 to July 2006. Release dates * United States: June 4, 2006 (Mann Village Theatre) * Colombia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Bolivia: June 15, 2006 * South Africa, Poland, Romania, Spain and Bulgaria: June 16, 2006 * United States, India, Taiwan, Mexico, and Canada: June 23, 2006 * Vietnam, Egypt and Pakistan: June 28, 2006 * Georgia, Serbia and Puerto Rico: June 29, 2006 * Uruguay, Lebanon, Lithuania, Philippines, and Finland:' '''June 30, 2006 * Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Belgium and France: July 5, 2006 * United Kingdom, Ireland, and Italy: July 7, 2006 * Kazakhstan, Argentina, Malaysia, and Russia: July 13, 2006 * Croatia, Thailand and Czech Republic: July 20, 2006 * Latvia, Panama, Estonia, and Brazil: July 21, 2006 * Serbia, Singapore, and Greece: July 27, 2006 * Austria and Germany: August 10, 2006 * Sweden: August 18, 2006 * Ukraine, Hong Kong, and South Korea: August 24, 2006 * Iceland and Denmark: August 25, 2006 * Australia and New Zealand: September 21, 2006 * Japan: September 23, 2006 * Portugal: September 28, 2006 * Switzerland, Cyprus, and Turkey: September 29, 2006 * Republic of Macedonia: October 6, 2006 * Israel: October 12, 2006 * China: October 19, 2006 * Hungary: November 2, 2006 Marketing Burger King promoted the film with a set of 8 kids' meal toys featuring the characters from the film. Baskin-Robbins promoted the film for its new Puppet Pal EXTREME Sundae that consists of crushed Hershey's chocolate, hot fudge, crushed chocolate cookies, whipped cream, squiggly gummy worms and chocolate syrup. The film was backed by a large marketing campaign, with toys, books, games, clothes, and many other items becoming available throughout 2006 * The film's first teaser trailer was released on May 19, 2005, and was later shown in theaters with other films such as ''Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Madagascar, Howl's Moving Castle, Wondercolts, History Island, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Bewitched, M.I.S.S.I.O.N., Fantastic Four, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bad News Bears, Thomas and the Magic Railroad 2: A New Adventure Begins, Sky High, Valiant, The Proud Family Movie, Woody Woodpecker, Nuclear Force, ''and ''Corpse Bride. * Another teaser trailer was released on October 6, 2005, and was later released with Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Chicken Little, Zathura: A Space Adventure, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Metro Cone, MYCUN: The Movie, Yours, Mine, & Ours, Jose Maldonaldo: World Tour, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Marcus Troy and the Kingdom of the Crown, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Hoodwinked!, and Nanny McPhee. * The first theatrical trailer was was released on February 9, 2006 and was shown with The Pink Panther, Curious George, Eight Below, Doogal, Aquamarine, The Shaggy Dog, Robot Siblings, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, The Wild, Midgets, RV, Akeelah and the Bee and Hoot. * The second and final theatrical trailer was released in May 11, 2006 and was later shown before Beastz, Goal: The Dream Begins, Over the Hedge, X-Men: The Last Stand,'' Cars'', The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, The Lake House ''and ''Nacho Libre. * TV spots began to air between May and June of 2006. Video game A video game based on the film was released on June 20, 2006 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PC, and Macintosh. Home media 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment first released Puppet Pals on DVD on October 31, 2006. This release includes a special THX edition with DTS sound, Three short films: Snoopy's Missing Adventure, Smiley Orientation and the Puppet Pals Crazy Dance Party. a look at Kate & Chris (2007), playable games, a demo of Puppet Pals (video game) on PC and many more. It was also released on Blu-ray + DVD combo pack on November 9, 2010. It was released again on Blu-ray 3D, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, DVD, and Blu-ray on November 1, 2016 to honor the 10th anniversary of the franchise. (Digital HD version was released on October 21, 2016) As of October 5, 2018, the film is available to watch on Netflix. Television series Shortly after the release of the film, Fox had plans to make Puppet Pals into a franchise. Among the various media created was a video game and an animated series. The show debuted on Disney Channel on November 19, 2010 and ended on December 16, 2016. Category:Puppet Pals Category:Films Category:20th Century Fox films Category:2000s Category:2006 Category:20th Century Fox animated films Category:GoAnimate Studios animated films Category:Fantasy films Category:Animated films Category:Computer animated films Category:IMAX films Category:Fox animated features canon